Welcome to part 3 of our series on the blessings and promises of God. In the previous segments, we looked at the foundation for the blessings, and why you can have confidence in them. We then proceeded to look at what it means to “know” that you are blessed from a spiritual perspective.
Today we will explore how your blessings come, and how to receive them into your life. While this information is presented in scripture simply, it can be surprisingly challenging to implement for many believers in daily life.
Believe to Receive
One of the questions that I am asked most often is ‘how do I receive what’s mine?’
That’s a good question, and it’s very utilitarian, based on real, honest need. I’ve been in that position; I understand the genuine desire for answers, and the frustration of being given dodgy non-answers by mainstream Christian leaders.
It’s when you need real and serious help, and genuine answers that you begin to realize that the typical Christian responses simply do not cut the mustard. People who need tangible help need effective answers that bring results.
One area among Christianity where this failure is most prevalent, is regarding believing and receiving. Certain sections of Christianity treat believing in a sort-of mystical way; people are simply told, ‘oh, just believe!’
Telling someone to just believe when they need actual help doesn’t do anything to solve the issue, and can lead to a great amount of frustration.
We must understand what it means to believe, to see how this works; because Jesus said plainly in Mark 11:24 that when you pray, believe that you receive, and you have have what you pray for.
That’s quite a statement, but what is Jesus telling us? It’s strange to realize that most believers honestly don’t believe these words of Jesus. A common phrase heard among the average group of Christians is that “God isn’t a genie, he’s not going to give you whatever you ask for!”
That statement sounds super-respectful, but it also directly contradicts what Jesus says in this verse! Let’s not simply rush passed this fact without digesting what is being said.
Jesus gives us instruction to inform us how to have whatever we ask for— was He lying? Did Jesus exaggerate? I know that this idea is a sticking-point for many people, however as we logically consider that God will indeed give us whatever we ask for, it makes sense.
The fact that God will indeed grant us whatever we ask for, including salvation, or final destruction in hell, should solidify to us that Jesus meant what He said about asking for and receiving whatever we ask for.
Why then are so few people receiving what they ask for? The clue is in the first part of what Jesus said: When you pray, believe that you receive. If we are truly honest with ourselves, most of the time this is where we tend to fail.
Oftentimes we reverse the whole thing. We say things like “I’ll believe it when I see it.”
We pray, and then we check to see if our prayer was answered. Have you ever done that?
We’re trying to get the second-half of what Jesus said without the first-half. Take a closer look at what Jesus said: Whatsoever things you desire, when you pray, believe that you receive, and you shall have them.
When You Pray, Believe
Do you see what Jesus is saying? When you pray, believe that you receive! At the time that you pray, Jesus says that you should believe that you receive. Jesus didn’t say to beg, plead, wish, or check to see if maybe God would grant your request— none of the typical things that we do!
The key here is to have absolute confidence that yes, the moment you pray, you already have the thing that you asked for. Does that idea seem unusual? Does that kind of thinking seem strange? Jesus spoke the words in verse 24 as much as the other verses, yet we find it challenging to accept what He said here, mostly due to religious indoctrination.
Speaking for myself, one of the most difficult aspects of accepting grace was letting go of traditional religious ideas, and embracing the way God describes Himself in the scriptures. Once I realized how good God truly is, and the spiritual haze was cleared away, I could see that what I thought I knew about God was all man-made theology that had no resemblance to truth.
Meditate on this truth, my friend; Jesus says that you should have complete confidence that when you pray, believe that you receive. What can give you this kind of confidence? What can make you so sure that you have whatever you ask for?
Complete Confidence in Jesus Christ
As you might be expecting, all of this is tied to and revolves around Jesus Christ, and your new identity in Him. For confirmation of this, let’s look at 1st John 5:14-15:
“ 14And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he hears us:
15And if we know that he hear us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.”
Now I have heard people take these verses and apply a legalistic lens to what is written, and in so doing, completely miss the point. Yet once you understand that your identity is in Christ and His perfect work, performance and sacrifice, and not your own work, performance or sacrifice. If you truly own the fact that everything you are and all that you have is tied directly to Him, then these verses should make perfect sense.
You have this confidence in Jesus Christ; anything you ask according to His will, He will hear. And also because we know He hears us, we also are not left guessing about the answer… we know that we have whatever we ask.
These verses totally shred to pieces the typical modern man-made theology that tries to paint prayer as some sort of spiritual gamble or roll of the dice! God cares far too much for us to leave us in the dark regarding His will or His response! He gave us Jesus! He gave us everything with Him! And He gave us these words to make sure that we know these things!
We don’t need to guess at His will, just look at Jesus. We don’t need to guess whether He hears our prayer, we know that He always does because we are not standing in ourselves but in Jesus. And we don’t need to guess whether His response is yes or no, because in Christ and according to His will, all responses are yes and amen.
I encourage you today, to receive this truth of your identity, in relation to your position in Christ, and what this means for your blessings. Please do not let this go— meditate on it, realize the great reality of what these scriptures are saying.
Join me again next week, as we continue exploring the blessings and promises for you in Christ.
Be blessed.